The Revenge of Seven: HIDDEN POV's

5

 (From Book) 

Six's POV

I guess in a way we've kidnapped Dale. He doesn't seem to mind. The scrawny redneck is having a grand old time lounging at the rear of his decades-old pontoon boat, pulling from his flask of moonshine, and brazenly ogling me and Marina. This boat of his is literally held together in places by duct tape and shoelaces, and we can't travel through the winding swampland streams too quickly for fear of overheating the engine. Also, every so often, Nine has to use a bucket to scoop dark brown swamp water out of the boat before the foot wells collect too much and we sink. Not exactly traveling in style, but Marina remains convinced that Dale stumbled on a Mogadorian encampment. So, for now, he's our guide.

 Dale insists that it's too dark to try navigating the swamp but he promises that he'll lead us to this decommissioned NASA base in the morning. It turns out that the bartender at Trapper's rented the shanties surrounding his place to any swamp people passing through. He gave one to us for next to nothing, floated us our meal, too, probably sensing that not helping us would just create more trouble. No one trusts Dale not to run off at his first opportunity, so we decide to take turns keeping watch on him. Nine draws first shift and ends up sitting with Dale outside our little shack, listening to stories about all the interesting things Dale had scavenged from the swamp. 

Marina and I lay down side by side on the flea-bitten mattress tossed on the floor of the shack, the only other furnishings a hot plate, a rusted-out sink that I don't think connected to any pipes, and an oil lantern. Considering we'd spent the last couple of days hiking through the swamps and barely resting,this is about the most comfortable I've been in days. As we lay here, I notice Marina has stopped radiating the aura of cold she's been giving off since Eight was killed. I think maybe she's     fallen asleep, but then she starts whispering to me in the darkness. 

"I feel him out there, Six." 

"What do you mean?" I whisper back, not understanding. "Eight is ..." I hesitate, not able to bring myself to state the obvious. 

"I know he's dead," she replies, rolling over to face me. "But I can still feel his – I don't know, his essence or something. He's calling to me. I don't know why, or how, I just know it's happening and that it's important." 

I fall silent. I remember Eight's story about meeting a mysterious old man while hiding out in India. I think his name was Devdan. The old guy taught him about Hinduism and martial arts and,eventually, disappeared back to wherever he came from. Eight really cherished what he learned about Hinduism – I think it helped him cope with his Cêpan's death. Hell, maybe there's something to all that reincarnation stuff. Eight was definitely the spiritual one of us, and if anyone would call out from beyond the grave, it'd probably be him. 

"We'll find him," I say quietly, although I'm not exactly confident that it's true. I think about what Nine said during his freak-out earlier that we'd already lost the war and no one had told us. 'I just don't know what we're going to do afterward." 

"It will reveal itself to us when the time comes," Marina replies peacefully, squeezing my hand, the nurturing Marina I've gotten to know briefly resurfacing, replacing the angry revenge seeker I've been surviving with the last couple of days. "I know it will."

Nine's POV

Dale is a freak.

He won't shut the hell up. I offered to take the first watch to make sure he doesn't run off, but man, now? I'm starting to regret it. 

". . . and then I reeled in my fishin' pole, and guess what was on that fishin' hook?"

I don't answer. He's been going on like this for the past hour. I already tried intimidating him into silence but he just isn't scared of me. No matter how many cuss words I use, he just keeps right on blabbing his mouth.

My eyelids feel heavy but every time they start to close, I snap myself back to attention. If I fell asleep, it'd be Dale's dream come true. He'd see it as an opportunity to escape. And I will not let that happen.

"Guess what was on that fishin' hook?" Dale repeats, waiting for an answer.

"I don't fucking care, Dale!!" I shout. Then I remember that Marina and Six are trying to sleep.

"Shoot," I mutter. They're probably just as tired as I am, if not more.

Be considerate, Johnny would tell me. Especially to girls. Girls are very sensitive.

"There was a fish on that hook!" Dale laughs, and slaps his knee.

"Dale, I swear if you don't shut the hell up, I will not hesitate to rip your head from your shoulders. There'll be nothing left of you but a body. Minus the head." I try to sound as scary as Setrakus Ra times ninety-nine. 

'Cuz Setrakus Ra doesn't scare me. Not one bit. He just pisses me off.

I guess there was something seriously scary about the way I death-stared Dale, because he goes silent. 

Nine freaking seconds go by until Dale pipes up again.

"The fish was a monstrous size, he was! Very fattened up! He must've eaten lots of stuff down there in the lake 'cuz he was a sight! We ate him the night after 'cuz . . ."

I fight the urge to strangle him. Unfortunately, we need him in order to find this NASA base. I lean back against the musty wooden wall of the hut and groan as Dale continues running his mouth.

This is going to be a long night.
****
After three hours of putting up with Dale's blabbering, I feel like I'm going to pass out. So I get up and wake Six. Not Marina. That would end badly for the both of us. She basically hates me. That's partly why I believe that Eight's death is my fault. Marina's attitude towards me isn't exactly boosting my confidence in this war. But she has every right to hate me.
Six takes my place without complaint. I curl up on the floor.
The second I close my eyes, I fall asleep.